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Alternatives to Pesticides
• Pheromone pest management
• Attract-and-kill systems
• Host plant resistance
• Cultural control techniques
Pheromone Pest Management
Pheromone - A chemical substance secreted by an organism that
affects the behavior of other organisms of the same
species.
Sex pheromones - Usually produced by females to attract males for
mating, but they may also be produced by males to
attract females
Aggregation pheromones – Is responsible for the aggregation /
congregation of insects at food sites or reproductive
habitats. They are very common in bark beetles
Trail-marking pheromones – These chemicals are produced by ants
and termites which allow other members of the
colony to follow or locate their position
Uses of pheromones in pest management
1) To monitor populations of insect pests
2) They are used in attract-kill-programs
3) To prevent mating in orchards
How does mating disruption works?
Washington State Univ
Commercially available disruption techniques
2) Aerosol emitters
1) Hand-applied dispensers
Rate: 1-2 / acre
Rate: 200-500 / acre
3) Sprayable microencapsulated formulations
Photo credit: ISCA Tech.
Stelinski 2007
Greatly
magnified
Mating disruption
Advantages
 Specific
 Long Lasting
 Difficult for insects to
develop resistance
 Non-toxic
Disadvantages
 Mostly effective for low to
moderate pest populations
 Can be costly
 Does not kill pest (immigration)
 Not a stand alone control
method
Methods to evaluate pheromone efficacy
Rubber septum
release device
Baited sticky
trap
 Trap-shut down
 Fruit injury counts
 Counting of pupal skins
 Dissecting females to
determine whether or not
they have mated
Stelinski 2007
Mechanisms in mating disruption
unresponsive receptors on antennae
 Sensory fatigue
habituation in central nervous system
 False trail-following – male moths follow synthetic pheromone
plume as opposed to the plume from a
female moth
 Kairomones - chemical substances produced by one species and
and received by a second species.
- The chemical substance is beneficial only to the receiver. These
chemical substances include attractants, excitants, and stimulants
Advantage
 Promote host finding, oviposition and feeding
Attract-and-Kill Systems
A pest control device consisting mainly of an attractant and a toxicant
Kairomone
baited trap
LastCallGRB®
Newly applied versus 6 wk
Contained 0.16% of
the GRB pheromone
and 6% Pyrocide
3 droplets per vine
Experimental trial - Attract & kill
• Malathion
• GF 120
• SpinTor
• Control
Effects of conventional and reduced-risk insecticides on A. suspensa
Laboratory Experiments
a
a
a
b
+
NuLure
P = 0.0062
Captures of GRB in Florida Vineyards
Host plant resistance
Resistant cultivars: insects may avoid plants for a variety of reasons:
Genetic Control
Allelochemic nonpreference
Diabrotica spp. avoiding cultivars that
 Non-preference
lacks cucurbitacins
(Antixenosis)
Morphological non-preference
Corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea
avoid ovipositing in cotton that lacks hair
 Antibiosis – Plant characteristics that impairs an insect’s
metabolic processes. Example pea cultivars with low amino
acid levels (nutritional deficiencies) shows resistance to pea
aphids
 Tolerance – The plant has the ability to give satisfactory yields in
spite of fairly high injury levels
Cultural techniques
 The use of mulches (reflective and living mulch)
Population of natural enemies in cucurbits treated with
different mulches
Cultural techniques
Managing field moisture/irrigation
Population of twospotted spider mites in strawberries
Soil Moisture levels
Cultural techniques
• Trap crops
• Adjust planting dates
• Clean cultivation
• Pruning